Jenny's Journey 2010: Sunday, July 8

Today is the first anniversary of Jenny's passing. I have been thinking of this day for awhile now, and how I would mark it. I decided I wanted to put the remainder of the ashes (the largest portion of them) into the ocean today.

Last year, in one of Jenny's and my discussions, I told her I would go to Australia to see her family and friends. She told me then that she had been thinking about the disbursement of the ashes, and said she wanted them in three portions. One would go to Denman Island for Linda and Shannon to spread in Lambert Channel where she used to sail her boat. The second would go to Australia to be put into Lake Macquarie. Both of these have been done, as you know. The third would go into the water off of Victoria.

As the time drew closer, I thought it would be fitting to do it today. I dithered around for weeks, maybe months, as to where to do it. Carl and Larry had both offered to take me in their respective boats, but I wanted to do it alone, which complicated the matter. I had to think of tides, beaches, access, time of day, numbers of people possibly present. A number of scenarios came to mind, one of which (and my preferred one) involved going down (and then of course UP) what seems to me to be about 3,000 stairs - at a place called Witty's Lagoon.

For lots of people all these stairs present no problem. But for I, with sciatica in the same leg as my arthritic knee for which I am awaiting a replacement, it poses a problem. So I had to consider other alternatives. One of them is an area close to here called Esquimalt Lagoon. My friend Joan Hoffman said she would be coming along, just to be sure that I got up the stairs if I ended up at Witty's. She would wait at the top, and if I could not make it she could order a winch or something!

Anyway, long story short (do I ever make a long story short?) I decided to stop and check out the lagoon first. So Joan met me there at 10:30 AM. I saw a spot where there were no people, and headed off. Joan sat with a cup of tea and Maclean's Magazine, which she thought was "very Jenny" (in fact, each week I give her Jenny's Macleans which are still coming).

A causeway separates Esquimalt Lagoon from Juan de Fuca Strait. When the tide goes out, it forms a fast moving stream at the end closest to the strait. There is a bridge going over the water for cars and pedestrians. I ended up going almost under the bridge to place the ashes into the water.

I took a chair to sit on , my CD player, a copy of KD Lang singing 'Hallelujah' (the only thing Jenny loved more than KD singing, was KD singing Hallelujah). I also had 'I Still Call Australia Home'. Also in my backpack, was one flower of every perennial Jenny had planted in the garden. Jenny's good friend from Churchill Falls days, Carol King, very kindly sent me carnations yesterday, which was Jenny's favourite flower. One of the carnations was among the flowers that floated out to sea along with the ashes.

I put the ashes and the flowers into the water, as KD sang. Below, are a few photos so you can see the area. As I was alone, it was a bit hard to get photos of everything as I was also doing it all. But there are a couple of pictures of a few flowers that hung around the water. Most of them floated away very quickly.

When all was done, I sat on the chair and played the Australia song, but about half way through, people came from both directions, so I left then and Joan and I went to Tim Horton's for a snack.

When I got home I sat on our very private deck, Jenny's picture on the table, and I put the CD player on but with ear buds this time, and played both songs through many times and I had a very good cry.

Marg and Sandy came for dinner, we had a toast to Jenny using her champagne glasses, even though we were not drinking champagne.

After they left, I sat on the deck again and listened to the two songs multi times and did it all over again. It feels at this time, at 10 PM as if the day was very satisfying.